Monday, April 17, 2017

The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle
the latest in a series of lawsuits stemming from sexual abuse by the
laicized priest Daniel McCormack.

The archdiocese has now committed to pay over $10 million to victims
of McCormack.

In separate lawsuits, these victims have demonstrated that
church officials had evidence that McCormack could be a threat to young
people as far back as 1994 — before he was ordained by the late Cardinal
Joseph Bernardin — but allowed him to continue in ministry until 2006.

McCormack was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to several counts
of sexual abuse.

When he became eligible for parole in 2009, prosecutors
invoked an Illinois law that allowed them to keep him under
confinement, saying that he remained an imminent threat.

The Archdiocese of Rouen has opened a formal cause for the
beatification of Father Jacques Hamel, who was killed by Islamic
terrorists last July while he was celebrating Mass in the church of St.
Etienne du Rouvray.

Ordinarily the Vatican requires a five-year waiting period after the
death of a candidate before a cause can be opened.

But Pope Francis
waived that rule in the case of Father Hamel, responding to pleas from
French Catholics.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen announced the opening of the
cause during the Chrism Mass in his archdiocese on Holy Thursday.

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb” she said “and we don’t know where they have put him.”

John 20:1-9

It can be hard to identify with Mary and the disciples
when we listen to the Easter story because we know the ending: we know
that Jesus has risen! At this point in the story Mary seems angry,
distraught, confused.

All of us can identify with these feelings when we
go through dark times in our lives. And often it needs the support and
understanding of others for our despair to turn into hope.

The
Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Mbala, Zambia, often
meet people who have lost everything including their money and homes,
looking for someone who will ‘cure’ them of their HIV.

Sister Yvonne
says: “Once they’ve exhausted everything and they are very sick –
they’ve no energy or strength – then they are taken to the hospitals and
most of the time this is when we come into contact with them, at the
point when they are really ill and have lost everything.

“So we
support them in that state, then we will provide medication,
counselling, and once they are healthier, then there is that great need
to support with a livelihood to bring them back to where they were.”

The
Sisters are there to meet those who are despairing and to walk with
them on their transformational journey of body, mind and spirit; a
journey from near-death to life in its fullness.

Easter Sunday prayer

Almighty
God, on this day when we remember and celebrate your resurrection, your
triumph over death, inspire us to reach out to others, sharing your joy
and your hope. Let us pray for the flourishing of all your creation.
Amen.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

A laicized New Hampshire priest, the former chancellor of the
Manchester diocese, has agreed to undergo mental-health counseling, as a
condition for his release from prison, where he is completing a
four-year term for misappropriating church funds.

Edward Arsenault entered a guilty plea in 2014 to charges that he
took more than $300,000 from the Manchester diocese.

He reportedly used
the money to support a homosexual affair.

The diocese announced last week that Arsenault had been laicized.

Arsenault’s agreement to undergo counseling was ironic because he
once served as the chief executive of the St. Luke Institute, the
Maryland facility that has provided counseling for many priests charged
with sexual abuse.

A Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Granada, Spain, has been
cleared of sex-abuse charges, in a case that saw Pope Francis intervene
on behalf of the priest’s accuser.

David Ramirez Castillo — originally identified only as “Daniel” — had
written to Pope Francis in 2014, complaining that he and other young men
had been molested by Father Roman Martinez and other priests when they
were teenagers.

The Pontiff responded by calling Ramirez Castillo to
express his sympathy and apologize for the abuse, and demanding a full
inquiry by the Granada archdiocese into the allegations about a
sex-abuse ring.

Ten priests were suspended from ministry during the
investigation.

But now a secular court in Spain has determined that the accusations
were unfounded.

The court ruled that testimony against Father Martinez
was “completely implausible,” and that several details of the complaint
by Ramirez Castillo had been proven false.